If you give a girl plane tickets to Sydney....

...she will gladly accept them! No questions asked!

As part of our tour here in Bangkok we are offered a R&R every year. Bangkok's R&R point happens to be Sydney, Australia. Who wouldn't want to go there, right? I waited a WHOLE YEAR to get to go. Lots of planning, preparing, and packing. Lots of emails to friends who had been, people we didn't know. Research on the web. Lonely Planet guides. Excited kids, and parents.

The day finally came. Our airport taxi picked us up at 5am. I will NEVER again be able to get the kids up that early. They were so eager to go they got up and helped. They were ready before Ben and I were.

It was a long flight, 8 hours, I think but we have endured longer so I didn't complain. The in seat entertainment is always such a huge help making the flight more bearable (for the parents). I always bring busy stuff but end up never pulling it out because the kids are too occupied with their screens. I love it! Everyone gets to do what they want. No fighting over which movie to watch, whose turn it is next, or how much longer until the next person's turn. They even feed you on planes. How nice!

We arrived in Sydney after dark and had to take a taxi to our hotel, which was way out in tim-buck-two because it was the only Marriott that would accept our reward points. We had planned on taking the train but it seemed the train didn't go out as far as our hotel was so we went with a taxi. The money we saved on the hotel went right out the window on that taxi ride. Because there were 6 of us and we all had luggage we had to take what is known as a "Maxi-Taxi", which is just jargon for a large van. That taxi ride cost us about $100. WHAT!!! Unreal! We found out the next day that the train DID go out to where we were and was only about a block and a half from the hotel. Ugh!


We only had 2 full days here so we didn't get to see too much but we made the most of it.
Day 1:  We took the train down to the harbor. The kids loved riding on the train. I couldn't believe how clean it was, the stations were clean also. Such a different experience than the Metro in DC (I'm sure there are worse train systems but DC had been our only experience thus far in our travels).
We took the ferry over to the Taronga Zoo which provided amazing views of the harbor, including the Sydney Opera House. We entered the zoo up over the treetops in a gondola ride to the top of the hill. The zoo was fun. We only heard a few complaints out of Danny this day. The vacation was just beginning so not much to complain about yet. (Don't worry, he gave us buckets full in the following weeks). We saw many animals that we had never seen before, being from North America. We had great views of the city. Had a very expensive lunch, which we all shared. Bought souvenirs. The whole touristy thing. After we spent the whole day at the zoo we took the ferry back, jumped on the train and called it a day.

Harbor view from the Train station.

This has to hurt, right?

I love this shot of the Eagle with the Sydney skyline in the distance.

View from the Zoo

Day 2: We once again rode the train into the harbor area as we had tickets to a show at the Opera House. How awesome is that?! In my research I found a kids play that would be there the same time we were so we splurged. It was a splurge as it wasn't cheap but now we can say that we saw a show INSIDE the Sydney Opera House. My kids are so lucky!
After the show we got lunch at a very crowded McDonald's. Still pricey, but not as bad as the zoo. We explored a little bit away from the harbor into the Botanical Gardens. I say "a little bit" because we didn't get very far into the actual gardens, nor past the Opera House before turning around and heading back to the train. The kids did get to burn off some energy by running, throwing boomerangs, and climbing trees so all was not lost. It made for a nice, quiet train ride back to the hotel.

Ready for the show to begin.

 

Of course, this kid was in Hog-Heaven!!!

Day 2 ended with a hike about half a mile away from the hotel to none other than TARGET!!! We HAD to go. I had not been to a Target in over a year! And it was so close! We had to!
On the way there Ben had given Andy his phone so that he could watch the map to see when we were getting closer, to stop the "How much longer?" and "Are we there yet?" questions. Leave it to the 7 year old train enthusiast to read the map and discover that there was a train station just outside the mall where Target was. We didn't have to walk all that way. We could have just gone one more stop. Geesh! Anyway, Target did not impress me. Ben bought a new pair of shoes and the kids got new Skylander Giants for the XBOX. I got nothing! I should have spent more time there. It just wasn't the same as any SuperTarget in North America. We took the train back to the hotel and packed up to leave the next morning. We of course took the train to the airport and it only cost us about $45. We waved good-bye to Sydney and looked forward to our next stop in Auckland, New Zealand.

Little terrors, be advised!

I was casually perusing Pinterest (for like 10 hours) and came across this. What an awesome idea. Looks easy enough. 

Easy enough I can make one of my own. 

So I did. 

This is what I came up with.

I changed a few of the words and added a DOS symbol instead of the presidential one to make it more personal. Now to put it to good use.

Orienteering

I'm a little behind on my blogging but since I am in front of the computer now, uploading photos, I will tell you about our day.

I found out, through Facebook, about an awesome "Orienteering" event not far from our house. It looked like so much fun but I was reluctant to go because it would be just the kids and ME. Daddy is in China for another few weeks. Just one day before we were all yelling and screaming at each other. School has been out for a whole week now and everyday has been filled with sitting in front of the XBOX or TV and lacking in structure so there have been a lot of arguments. I figured getting the kids out of the house would be a good idea and would definitely tire them out beyond arguing with each other.

The directions were a little confusing but thanks to TomTom and the provided GPS coordinates we eventually found our way. There was a comment under the directions on the website that read "If you can't find the place, it is ok, it is like failing to qualify for an event".  I took this as a slap in the face and was so determined to find this place, even though there were no sins or clear markers. It was inside the Thai Military 100th Batallion Camp and navigating inside the huge compound was a bit overwhelming. Plus the directions told me to take 2 lefts when they should have told me to take 2 rights! But we found it.

After walking around for about 15 minutes searching for anyone else participating in or even running the program we were given our map, compass, and instructions.

learning what to do.

The idea was to find your way around using the map and compass to find flags with codes on them. We headed out to the 2 closest flags to get things going.

Ellie was really adamant that she wanted to go canoeing so after the 1st 2, we went in the canoes (which were actually kayaks).

Benny was not to keen on this as they were a little wobbly for him. It took some convincing but with me behind the paddle he climbed aboard. He really hated this once we got to the island and he jumped out to check the flag and happened upon some REALLY big ants that started biting him. He had a little melt-down and I couldn't get to him so he jumped back into the boat and we managed to get all of the ants off. Once back at the dock I used a little "Mommy Magic" and put some Neosporin on the bites and that seemed to help him calm down.

With now soggy bottoms, ant bites, and fresh sunscreen, we headed out on our bikes to find all of the other flags. It was a chore to fit the bikes in our small car but I am so glad we were able to do it. It would have been a totally miserable day walking through the woods without them.

The boys loved this part but Ellie was full of complaints about the temperature, bugs, mud, being outside in general. We were able to make our way around and actually find most of the flags. I had a great time, even if it was really hot out. I was so proud of myself for making it through with all 4 kids by myself, as well as getting 4 bikes in the car, and mine tied to the top of the car, twice!

Can you see Andy back there? Benny is down below him somewhere.

2 kids up front: We could/would not do this anywhere but in Thailand!

Loading the bikes was much easier the 2nd time, but a whole lot messier with the mud caked tires.

We ended the day at the pool to cool off and ended up eating dinner there as well. We stayed until it got dark and the bats came out. I know everyone will sleep well tonight!

Notice Ellie walking away! She was DONE! Wouldn't even pose for a picture.